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Roy Kinnear
Roy Mitchell Kinnear (8 January 1934 – 20 September 1988) was a British character actor. He was familiar to UK audiences for his appearances in many British television comedy shows, and is also remembered for his film appearances as Veruca Salt's father, Mr. Salt, in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971) and as Planchet in Richard Lester's The Three Musketeers and its two sequels. It was during the filming of the latter sequel that Kinnear died as a result of a riding accident. Early life Kinnear was born in Wigan, Lancashire, the son of Annie Smith (née Durie) and Roy Muir Kinnear. His father was a dual international in rugby union and league, having played for Scotland and Great Britain national rugby league team international, making one Lions appearance and three for Other Nationalities, and scoring 81 tries in 184 games for Wigan; he collapsed and died while playing rugby union with the RAF in 1942, at age 38. Scotland Rugby League have named their Student Player of the Year Award after him. Kinnear was educated at George Heriot's School, in Edinburgh. At the age of 17, he enrolled in the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art; however, national service interrupted his studies. Career In the 1950s Kinnear began a career in repertory theatre, when he appeared in a show at Newquay; and in 1959 he joined Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop at the Theatre Royal Stratford East, performing in both the 1960 play and 1963 film of Sparrows Can't Sing. Prior to joining Joan Littlewood's Theatre, he was a member of the cast of Perth Repertory Theatre. The cast also included people like Valerie Lush, Jane Cain ( the original voice of the Speaking Clock) and Russell Hunter. He continued to work on stage and radio before gaining national attention as a participant in the television show That Was The Week That Was. He later appeared in many films and UK TV shows including comedies Doctor at Large, Man About the House, George and Mildred, The Dick Emery Show (as the long suffering dad to Emery's gormless bovver boy character, Gaylord) and starred in Cowboys, a sitcom about builders. His best-known films are those he made with director and close friend Richard Lester: Help!, A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to the Forum, How I Won the War, The Bed-Sitting Room, and the Musketeer series of the 1970s and 1980s. He appeared, along with Christopher Lee in the Hammer Horror film Taste the Blood of Dracula (1970). Also, in 1970, he played Mr. Perkins, Melody's father in Waris Hussein's "Melody", a Puppy Love story. He played the father of spoiled rich girl Veruca Salt in the film Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971), an adaptation of Roald Dahl's children's novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. He guest starred in The Goodies' episode "Rome Antics", in which he appeared as the Roman Emperor, as well as in the BBC's Ripping Yarns episode Escape From Stalag Luft 112B (1977) as the fearsome German Sergeant Vogel alongside Monty Python actor and series co-writer Michael Palin as Major Errol Phipps, a Royal Flying Corps pilot who is a prisoner-of-war in Germany in 1917 during World War I; ironically, Phipps never escapes from the camp but Vogel does after accidentally shooting the camp Kommandant when he (the Kommandant) was attempting to escape alongside all the guards. He narrated and provided voices for the stop-motion children's television show Bertha. He appeared in two music videos for Mike + The Mechanics ("All I Need Is a Miracle" and "Taken In") as the band's manager, the former of which saw him reunited with his Help! co-star Victor Spinetti. He narrated Towser and Bertha, voiced Pipkin in the 1978 film Watership Down and voiced Texas Pete's henchman Bulk in SuperTed (also with Victor Spinetti who also voiced the evil Texas Pete). Kinnear's name cropped up regularly on the stage; in his later life he appeared in productions such as The Travails of Sancho Panza - playing the title role, and in The Cherry Orchard, in 1985. In 1987 Kinnear starred in the ITV sitcom Hardwicke House, but the show caused such a storm of protest it was cancelled after just two episodes. His final completed roles were in A Man for All Seasons (1988) a made-for-television film directed by and starring Charlton Heston, John Gielgud and Vanessa Redgrave, and as a patient in the BBC1 hospital drama Casualty. Following his sudden death in September 1988, that episode was postponed. It finally aired in August 1989. Filmography * The World Owes Me a Living (1944) * Oh Rosalinda! (1955) * The Millionairess (1960) * The Boys (1962) * Tiara Tahiti (1962) * The Informers (1963) * A Place to Go (1963) * The Small World of Sammy Lee (1963) * Heavens Above! (1963) * Sparrers Can't Sing (1963) * French Dressing (1964) * The Hill (1965) * Help! (1965) * The Deadly Affair (1966) * A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1966) * The Mini-Affair (1967) * How I Won the War (1967) * Albert Carter, Q.O.S.O. (1968) * Lock Up Your Daughters (1969) * The Bed Sitting Room (1969) * Egghead's Robot (1970) * The Firechasers (1970) * Scrooge (1970) * Melody(1970 film)(1970) * On A Clear Day You Can See Forever (1970) * Taste the Blood of Dracula (1970) * Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971) * Melody (1971) * The Alf Garnett Saga (1972) * That's Your Funeral (1972) * Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1972) * The Pied Piper (1972) * Madame Sin (1972) * The Cobblers of Umbridge (1973) * The Three Musketeers (1973) * Barry McKenzie Holds His Own (1974) * Three for All (1974) * The Four Musketeers (1974) * Juggernaut (1974) * The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother (1975) * Royal Flash (1975) * One of Our Dinosaurs Is Missing (1975) * Eskimo Nell (1975) * The Amorous Milkman (1975) * Not Now, Comrade (1976) * The Last Remake of Beau Geste (1977) * Ripping Yarns (1977) * Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo (1977) * The Hound of the Baskervilles (1978) * Watership Down (1978) * The London Connection (1979) * Quincy's Quest (1979) * Hawk the Slayer (1980) * High Rise Donkey (1980) * Cowboys (1980) * Rhubarb Rhubarb (1980) * Blake's 7 (1981) * If You Go Down in the Woods Today (1981) * The Boys in Blue (1982) * SuperTed (1982) * Hammett (1982) * Anyone for Denis? (1982) * Anna Pavlova (1983) * Towser (1984) * The Clairvoyant (1984) * Squaring the Circle (1984) * The Zany Adventures of Robin Hood (1984) * Bertha (1985) * Pirates (1986) * Mr. H Is Late (1987) * Unusual Ground Floor Conversion (1987) * Casanova (1987) * Hardwicke House (1987) * Just Ask for Diamond (1988) * A Man for All Seasons (1988) * The Return of the Musketeers (1989) * The Princess and the Goblin (1992) Appearences *That Was the Week That Was - *Quiz Ball - *Frost on Sunday - *Once More with Felix - *Join Jim Dale - *Jokers Wild - *World of Sport - *The Roy Kinnear Show - *Jackanory - *Today - *Star Games - *Mad Dogs and Cricketers *The Sooty Show - *Clapper Board - The London Connection *Give Us a Clue - *This Is Your Life - *Saturday Night at the Mill - *London Night Out - *Family Fortunes - *Whose Baby? - *3-2-1 - *On Safari - *Breakfast Time - *Children in Need - *Sunday, Sunday - *An Audience with Kenneth Williams *Punchlines! - *Child's Play - *All Star Secrets - *An Audience with Billy Connolly *Aspel & Company - *Blankety Blank - *Wogan - *An Audience with Peter Ustinov *A Question of Entertainment - *Rainbow - *Roland Rat - The Series II - Category:British voice actors